Works of 50 Artists Displayed on Balconies in Berlin

A beautiful art installation displayed on an artist's balcony was part of the Balconies, Life, Art, Pandemic, and Proximity exhibition last week in Berlin. Photos: JOHN MACGOUGALL/AFP
A beautiful art installation displayed on an artist's balcony was part of the Balconies, Life, Art, Pandemic, and Proximity exhibition last week in Berlin. Photos: JOHN MACGOUGALL/AFP
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Works of 50 Artists Displayed on Balconies in Berlin

A beautiful art installation displayed on an artist's balcony was part of the Balconies, Life, Art, Pandemic, and Proximity exhibition last week in Berlin. Photos: JOHN MACGOUGALL/AFP
A beautiful art installation displayed on an artist's balcony was part of the Balconies, Life, Art, Pandemic, and Proximity exhibition last week in Berlin. Photos: JOHN MACGOUGALL/AFP

After the closure of Berlin's art galleries over the COVID-19 pandemic, around 50 artists exhibited their works on balconies, calling the audience for an "intimate visit" to enjoy their creations.

"At a time when our freedom of movement is suspended, balconies have become unique performance sites," said the organizers who launched the project in the Prenzlauer Berg district of east Berlin.

The project's curators Ovul Durmusoglu and Joanna Warsza, who called the artists to unleash their imagination, said: "Balconies are for getting a breath of fresh air, spending some time in the sun or smoking."

The curious walkers in Berlin, where the rules of isolation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic are less strict than elsewhere in Germany, are invited to raise their heads and admire the artworks.

One artist displayed black and white photographs of people on their balconies in Athens and Cordoba, while another hung a ladder made from tree branches.

Other installation presents ribbons of toilet paper cascading down a building's facade, a reference to Germans' rush to stock up on the must-have commodity as soon as the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Europe.

The project with "zero budget, no preview, no crowds" aims to provide "an intimate walk in search of signs of life and art", the organizers said.



Plant Native to Sumatra Warms Up to About Temperature of Human Body

A flowering titan arum at Kew Gardens, London. Photograph: Clara Charles/AFP/Getty Images
A flowering titan arum at Kew Gardens, London. Photograph: Clara Charles/AFP/Getty Images
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Plant Native to Sumatra Warms Up to About Temperature of Human Body

A flowering titan arum at Kew Gardens, London. Photograph: Clara Charles/AFP/Getty Images
A flowering titan arum at Kew Gardens, London. Photograph: Clara Charles/AFP/Getty Images

This giant plant stinks to high heaven and warms up to about the temperature of a human body. It's the inflorescence of the titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, a plant called a spadix that stands up to three metres tall, warms up to 36C at night and gives off the stench of a rotting corpse.

This wonder is actually a ruse to attract carrion flies and beetles to pollinate the small flowers that are tucked away at the base of the spadix inside a large bucket-shaped leafy wrapper, where the insects are trapped until the flowers are successfully pollinated, The Guardian reported.

A recent study revealed the plant’s pungent odours were made up of a stinky cocktail of sulphur chemicals, including the aptly named compound putrescine, which is given off by rotting animal carcasses.

This foul concoction is released only when the spadix warms up in short pulses.

The titan arum grows in the forests of Sumatra in Indonesia, and to add to its otherworldly qualities, the plant takes years to come into bloom for the first time, and when it does flower, the bloom only lasts a few days.